Bloomberg holds conversation about race and its role in the workforce with employees
June 03, 2020
Race remains a difficult topic for any organization to address. But, for those that wish to be truly inclusive, race is a topic that needs to be discussed openly, candidly, and often.
For 90 minutes on Tuesday, June 2, 2020, Mrs. Harriet R. Michel, noted public policy expert on civil rights and race relations, did just that with more than 5,000 of Bloomberg’s employees – over a quarter of the company’s global workforce. During a virtual conversation about racial injustice, Mrs. Michel shared her perspective on how far Black Americans and our wider society have come since her marching on the front lines of the Civil Rights movement in Birmingham, Alabama, during Bloody Sunday in 1965, as well as the state of affairs in today’s current environment.
“There are much higher rates of high school and college graduation of Black people than there have been before. We’ve made progress and certainly had success in sports and entertainment,” Mrs. Michel noted. “But, too many Americans look at Black people as either to serve them in some way or to entertain them, and they really don’t care a whole lot about us. Therefore, we have never been given a full panoply of our rights or really considered as total human beings and given what we might need to be successful.”
The event, which was organized and hosted by Bloomberg’s Diversity & Inclusion team, featured Mrs. Michel, in conversation with her son, Chris Michel, Bloomberg’s Head of Diversity & Inclusion, Americas. Together, they discussed the Black lived experience in the U.S., economic empowerment, representation in the workforce, and what comes next, and answered questions from employees.
Peter T. Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg LP, opened this important discussion, noting, “At Bloomberg, we are unconditionally committed to equality in the workplace and representing all underrepresented groups in the diverse workforce we are building.”
Over the last few years, in an effort to educate employees and leaders, Bloomberg has held multiple conversations about race in the workplace through “Inclusion Dialogues” sessions in partnership with internal D&I Communities (Pan-Asian Community, Black Professional Community, and Latinx Community). The new “Inclusion Dialogues: Conversations About Race” series is open to all employees at Bloomberg. It seeks to explore and provide insight on the lived experiences of ethnically under-represented groups, including Black Americans, Latinx Americans and Asian Americans. It will answer questions on how their experiences are manifested at work, the mental health of each group, what advocating means, what it takes to be an active ally, in addition to the role of corporations in race relations.
This ongoing initiative provides Bloomberg employees with a forum in which to start having meaningful facilitated conversations around race. These sessions represent Bloomberg’s approach to more authentic conversations about challenging D&I topics at Bloomberg. The program’s very name demonstrates that it is an attempt to create a safe space where Bloomberg employees’ opinions can be heard, debated, and challenged without judgement. In-between the series’ events, the D&I team also plans to host regular office hours to keep the conversation going.
Pamela Hutchinson, Bloomberg’s Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion, shared, “We all have a responsibility to educate and raise our level of awareness on race – because it’s only through education, awareness, and discussion that we can begin to recognize our role in changing the narrative.”
Additional Resources
Toward a Racially Just Workplace (Harvard Business Review)
Maintaining Professionalism In The Age of Black Death Is….A Lot (Medium)
Citi CFO, One of the Few Black Bank Executives, Weighs In (Bloomberg News)
Bloody Sunday remembered: civil rights marchers tell story of their iconic photos (The Guardian)
“Success is not a solo sport:” How workplaces can better support women of color (Bloomberg D&I blog)
The 1619 Project (The New York Times)
Officer who stood by as George Floyd died highlights complex Asian American, black relations (NBC Asian America)
CNN and ‘Sesame Street’ to host a town hall addressing racism (CNN)